Method for making textile products

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a method for producing a textile product of the lapped/bonded type from fibres and/or filaments travelling in the direction of advance in the form of a web, this method comprising at least one step, called the “prelooping step”, in which the fibres and/or filaments individually undergo looping transversely to the direction of advance of the web, if appropriate accompanied by transverse drawing, characterized in that it subsequently comprises a step of confining the parallelized fibres and/or filaments in the form of loops, this latter confining step taking place directly on a support, without transport members, such as needles or transfer elements, being involved.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is the national stage of International Application No.PCT/EP98/00770 filed Feb. 11, 1998.

SUBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an improved method for the manufactureof textile products of the “lapped/bonded” type directly from fibresand/or from filaments.

The invention also relates to an apparatus for carrying out the methodand to the products obtained by means of the said method.

PRIOR ART ON WHICH THE INVENTION IS BASED

So-called “lapped/bonded” products are products which are produced froma textile lap, preferably from a lap already consisting of threads, or,if appropriate, from a fibrous lap, which is subjected to a successionof foldings for the purpose of forming folds which may be likened, inthe direction of advance of the lap, to loops. This folded lap issubsequently simply fixed to a support by adhesive bonding. A product isthus obtained, in which the threads and/or fibres do not pass throughthe support, in contrast to tufted products which take the form of asuccession of loops passing through the support.

There are, at the present time, essentially two large families ofmethods intended for producing textile products of the “lapped/bonded”type.

The first family is the best known and comprises the methods employing amachine with arms, to which blades are fastened. A lap of threads ispushed by these blades successively onto a first backboard, then onto asecond backboard which is parallel to the first, in order to form asuccession of loops by folding. These loops are subsequently fixed to asupport which is preferably coated beforehand with a glue, such as apolyvinylchloride paste, and onto which the loops will be deposited, theassembly thus formed by the support and the fixed loops beingsubsequently subjected to thermal treatment, for example passage throughan infrared furnace.

According to another embodiment, the loops may be held between twosupports, before a hot-melt adhesive passes through the said supports inorder to impregnate the bases of the loops.

At all events, whether by fixing of the PVC type or of the hot-melttype, the product obtained either has a looped appearance resembling alooped tufted product or is of the “sandwich” type, consisting of loopstrapped between two supports which may be subsequently splitlongitudinally in order to obtain two products of the pile fabric type.

Another alternative involves proposing the use of tensioned cables toreplace the blades mentioned above.

According to the second large family of methods, successive folds areformed by means of a rotary system, by pushing the threads and/or fibresof the lap successively into protuberances present on a groovedcylinder. The folds are made under the action of a folding member, suchas a blade or a roller, which are themselves grooved. Subsequently, asupport, preferably coated beforehand with glue, is arranged on thesuccession of loops obtained by folding. If appropriate, the assemblyconsisting of the support and of the fixed loops is subjected to thermaltreatment before these are removed from the grooved cylinder.

It is expedient to note that all these methods have the followingdisadvantages:

their production speed remains relatively low. As an example, 120strokes per minutes is already a relatively high speed for a system witharms, as described above, because of the complexity of the movementgenerated by the cam members;

the quantity of adhesive necessary for fixing the loops to the supportremains large, and therefore the products obtained are still relativelytoo costly;

the range of products of the “lapped/bonded” type which can be producedis relatively limited.

On the other hand, the Applicant developed a technique for producingtextile products directly from fibres and/or filaments, which is calledthe “verticalization technique”.

This technique is described in the patent application published undernumber WO91/00382, and makes it possible to produce products, such asfloor and/or wall coverings of the moquette type, directly from fibresand/or filaments travelling in the form of a web.

The technique described involves subjecting the fibres and/or filamentsto “transverse looping” accompanied by “drawing” and obtaining anaccumulation of fibres and/or filaments in the form of a crimped“pseudo-yarn”, in which the fibres and/or filaments are parallelized.This step is referred to, in general terms, as the “(pre)looping step”and must not be likened to folding.

This document describes that transverse looping accompanied by drawingis carried out, for each individual fibre or filament, by means ofrotary elements or looping discs which are spaced and arranged on ashaft transverse to the direction of advance of the web and betweenwhich looping fingers are arranged. Each fibre or filament is, inprinciple, thereby involved in at least one looping. A non-twistedpseudo-yarn is thus formed, obtained by the accumulation of the variousexactly parallelized elementary fibres and/or filaments, the saidaccumulation having a looped form.

The accumulation of the parallelized fibres and/or filaments in the formof the pseudo-yarn takes place either in the open needle eye, asdescribed in detail in the Applicant's publication WO91/00382, or innotches provided in transfer elements, as described in the documentWO96/10667, also of the Applicant.

With the aid of these transport members consisting either of the needlesor of the transfer elements, the pseudo-yarn is subsequentlytransported, in the form of transverse rows of loops, towards a supportto which the loops are fixed.

In the publication WO91/00382, fixing is carried out by passing theneedles through this support for the purpose of producing, morespecifically, a floor covering of the tufted type.

This method was made even better by proposing the improvements describedin European Patent Application EP 95870093.2, in which the methoddescribed in the publication WO91/00382 is combined with the use of alap drawframe, as described in the document EP-A 0,520,911. Moreover, itis proposed to double the looping elements by adding a step called the“crimping step”, so as to limit the forces on the shafts which arise asa result of the use of a web coming from a conventional lapper.

In this case, there are at least two separate assemblies of elements:the first assembly is intended for carrying out a crimping step by meansof an apparatus consisting of the interpenetration of a first set ofcrimping discs with a first set of crimping fingers, whilst the secondassembly is intended for carrying out the conventional subsequent step,called the prelooping step, by means of an apparatus consisting of theinterpenetration of a second set of discs, called looping discs, with asecond set of fingers, called looping fingers, this second assemblybeing arranged downstream of the crimping device in relation to thedirection of advance of the web. The gauge of the crimping apparatus isa multiple of the gauge of the prelooping apparatus.

The products proposed in this document are essentially in the form oftufted products.

At this stage, it has been possible for this verticalization techniqueactually to achieve industrial use. In fact, it has been possible tocontrol the levels of forces and torques even in the case of very largeworking widths (for example, greater than 4 meters).

Nevertheless, although this method can be fully put into practice on anindustrial scale, it must be accepted that its productivity stillremains limited. This is essentially due to the presence of transportmembers which execute an alternating movement and which are either inthe form of needles or else in the form of transfer elements, asdescribed in the document WO96/10667.

In fact, the production speed, which may be expressed as the product ofthe advance of the substrate per stroke (in mm) and the beating speed ofthe needles (in strokes per minute) reaches an order of magnitude of 1.5to 4.5 m/min, this being perfectly acceptable for producing tuftedproducts, but still remaining too low for production comparable to aneedling line, the production speed of which may reach an order of 15m/min.

Moreover, for obvious reasons of overall size due to the presence ofneedles or even of transfer elements between the looping discs, it isdifficult for the gauge of a so-called verticalization apparatus to bebelow {fraction (1/10)}th of an inch, that is to say 2.54 mm, unless itbecomes possible to produce highly accurate and therefore relativelycostly members, thus depriving the so-called verticalization method ofthe possibility of producing products inexpensively.

On the other hand, a trend in the tastes of consumers towards fine-gaugeproducts may be seen. These products are those where the advance perstroke and consequently productivity, too, are the lowest. This is ameasure of the usefulness of a method in which very fine gauges would beeasy to produce, without the production speed having to be limited.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention aims to provide a solution to the existinglimitations, more particularly as regards productivity, in the methodsemployed in the so-called verticalization technique, as is described inthe documents WO91/00382 and WO96/10667.

The present invention aims, more particularly, to make it possible toproduce so-called “lapped/bonded” products which may have an appearanceclose to those known in the prior art, whilst allowing very highproductivity when the method is implemented.

The present invention aims, in addition, to make it possible to produceproducts of the “lapped/bonded” type having a fine gauge, that is to saya gauge below {fraction (1/10)}th of an inch.

Moreover, the present invention aims to make it possible to produce newproducts which have been impossible to produce at the present time,using the technique described as such in the Applicant's priorpublications and, more particularly, in the publications WO91/00382 andWO96/10667.

MAIN CHARACTERISTIC ELEMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method for producing a textileproduct of the “lapped/bonded” type from fibres and/or filamentstravelling in the direction of advance in the form of a web, this methodcomprising at least one step, called the prelooping step, in which thefibres and/or filaments individually undergo looping transversely to thedirection of advance, if appropriate accompanied by transverse drawing.

As already mentioned above, transverse looping accompanied by drawing iscarried out, for each individual fibre or filament, by means of rotaryelements or looping discs which are spaced and arranged on a shafttransverse to the direction of advance of the web and between whichlooping fingers are arranged. This makes it possible to ensure that eachfibre or filament is involved in at least one prelooping step and allowsthe parallelization of these elementary fibres and/or filaments.

The present method is characterized in that confinement of the materialin the form of loops consisting of the particularly exactly parallelizedfibres and/or filaments is carried out, and in that this confinementtakes place directly on a support, without transport members, such asneedles or transfer elements, being involved.

This confinement is obtained after a first transient step which isassociated with the start-up of a product line and during which thefirst loops obtained by means of the step of prelooping the individualfibres and/or filaments form a stop in an arbitrary manner. Theconfinement takes the form of an accumulation of loops, which consist ofparallelized fibres and/or filaments, one behind the other.

The successive loops are positioned essentially vertically by means of adetaching element which makes it possible to guide the material as faras the support, whilst at the same time holding the said material bymeans of a bar assembly.

The support may be directly the final substrate of the product to beproduced and therefore consist of a fibre mat, a plastic film, a backingof the PVC type, etc.

If appropriate, instead of being deposited directly onto the substrateof the final product, the confined material could be gripped by anintermediate element, such as a spiked belt, a brush or a Velcro®support, the function of which is to maintain the crimped form of theloops while the free end of the material is being fixed to a substrate.

This fixing to the substrate is carried out by means of a glue, theviscosity of which is designed to make it possible to drive theindividual fibres and/or filaments of the material, together with thesubstrate, whilst at the same time carrying out efficient adhesivebonding.

In general terms, it is possible to use either pastes or resins(acrylic, isocyanate, styrene-butadiene, phenolic, etc.) orthermoplastics in the form of a hot melt, film or powder (polyesters,polypropylene, EVA, PVC, etc.) or foams (PVC, acrylic, etc.), or directadhesion by melting the verticalized fibre onto the substrate may becarried out. The means used for supplying the heat necessary for thispurpose are preferably provided by an infrared furnace, a calender or aheating drum or else heating blades which take the form of plane metalparts comprising electrical resistors or ducts for the passage ofheat-exchange fluids.

The speed of advance of the substrate may either be uniform or takeplace in bursts, in such a way that more marked confinement of thetextile material on this support is obtained.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The present invention will be described in more detail by means of thefollowing figures:

FIG. 1 describes diagrammatically the verticalization apparatus, as usedin the present method.

FIGS. 2a-2 e describe the successive steps of preparing the textilematerial, of verticalizing the fibres and/or filaments forming thismaterial, of parallelizing them and of confining them.

FIG. 3 describes an apparatus which makes it possible to produce atextile product in the form of a lapped/bonded product of sandwich typein a first embodiment of the method according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 describes an apparatus which makes it possible to produce atextile product containing bentonite powder in another embodiment of themethod according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In the conventional way, a web of fibres and/or of filaments havingconditions as to the position of the fibres and/or filaments within theweb and as to weight, as are described in the Applicant's priorpublications, is delivered into the region of the verticalizationapparatus described in FIG. 1.

This apparatus comprises essentially a set of discs, called “loopingdiscs”, bearing the reference 11 and carried on a common transverseshaft 13 driven in continuous rotation at a peripheral speed preferablyequal to the entry speed of the web 0. The looping discs 11 areprovided, on their periphery, with a toothing 15 which has a suitableangle relative to the tangent and which makes it possible to drive theentry web. Arranged between each of the discs are looping fingers 21,the end of which is presented essentially tangentially relative to thediscs. This apparatus makes it possible to carry out the step called the“prelooping step”, which involves subjecting the fibres and/or filamentsindividually to transverse looping accompanied by drawing, for thepurpose of parallelizing them correctly.

In order to understand better the method on which the present inventionis based, it is expedient to refer to the various FIGS. 2a to 2 e whichdescribe the successive steps of preparing the textile material intendedfor the production of the specific products of the lapped/bonded type.

More particularly, FIG. 2a describes the step, in which the web 0,consisting of the individual fibres and/or filaments 10, has just beenintroduced between the looping discs 11 and the looping fingers 21. Thefibres and/or filaments 10 individually undergo the prelooping stepalready described, which corresponds to individual transverse looping,if appropriate accompanied by drawing. The parallelized fibres and/orfilaments 10 are subsequently delivered towards the end of the loopingfingers 21.

According to the method of the present invention, due to the absence oftransport members, such as needles or transfer elements, whichexperience an alternating movement, there is no limit to thedimensioning, and therefore the forces absorbed may be markedly greater.This also means that the forces experienced by the shaft may be greater,thus allowing more latitude in the orientation of the fibres and/orfilaments at the web entry.

FIG. 2b shows that the fibres and/or filaments 10, which continue to bedriven by the rotating looping discs 11, are subsequently blocked due tothe presence of detaching feet 31, against which they begin toaccumulate one behind the other so as to form a stop (or “plug”) 20. Inthis case, the fibres and/or filaments are sharply inclined and mayeven, in a borderline case, be virtually horizontal.

FIG. 2c shows that this stop or “plug” 20 tends to expand downwards inthe direction of a substrate 100.

FIG. 2d shows that the “plug” 20, consisting of the accumulation ofparallelized and crimped fibres and/or filaments, ultimately attains avolume such that it comes into contact naturally with the substrate 100arranged just below the looping fingers 21. In this case, the fibresand/or filaments coming directly from the prelooping step are condensedduring a step called the “confining step”, this time vertically, againstthe obstacle formed by the “plug”.

FIG. 2e shows that the “plug” 20 is driven by the substrate 100, beingassisted in this by the rotation of the looping discs 11 and by thepressure exerted by the parallelized fibres and/or filaments 10 whichcontinue to come from the looping fingers 21. This phase shows that thefibres and/or filaments are subsequently deposited uniformly onto thesubstrate 100, without any more accumulation in the form of a “plug”. Inthis case, these fibres and/or filaments are arranged essentiallyvertically.

According to a particularly preferred embodiment, there is provision forthe detaching feet 31 to have a particular form in order to make thisstep easier. The detaching feet are arranged so as to be capable offorming a funnel 41 between the said feet and the substrate 100 whichcontinues to flow.

In this last step, the detaching feet 31 no longer have the function ofdetaching the fibres and/or filaments from the looping fingers, but,instead, the function of promoting the fixing of the said fibres and/orfilaments to the substrate. Moreover, the rounded part of the detachingfeet will make it possible to guide the confined fibres and/or filamentstowards the substrate, whilst its oblique part, located at a distancefrom the substrate which is slightly shorter than the looping height,will exert pressure on the parallelized fibres and/or filaments in orderto compel them to adhere to the support.

The tension present within the fibres and/or filaments at the momentwhen they are confined on the detaching feet is lower than thatprevailing within the material undergoing the prelooping step, thusmaking it possible for the parallelized fibres and/or filaments to beeasily driven together with the substrate. In fact, if the tensionexperienced by the fibres and/or filaments at the end of the loopingfingers during the prelooping step were lower than the reaction pressureexerted by the “plug” or stop in the funnel formed by the detaching feet31 and the substrate 100, the fibres and/or filaments 10 would thenbegin to accumulate between the looping discs 11 and looping fingers 21,this occurring as far as the web entry. There would therefore be noautomatic drive of the material together with the substrate.

This tension depends essentially on the orientation of the fibres and/orfilaments in the web at the entrance of the verticalization apparatus.

The presence of this tension within the fibres and/or filaments allowsthe assembly as a whole to function as a “non-return valve” bypreventing the fibres and/or filaments from accumulating on the loopingfingers.

It is expedient to note that although, as described in the Applicant'spreceding publications, a yarn or pseudo-yarn is not actually made, thefibres and/or filaments obtained are nevertheless perfectlyparallelized. Moreover, the density of the loops can be adjusted byvarying the ratio of the speed of advance of the substrate to the discdrive speed.

In order to produce products of the lapped/bonded type, it is preferableif the substrate 100 is coated beforehand with a glue, the viscosity ofwhich will have been selected so as to allow the fibres and/or filaments10 to be driven, together with the substrate, whilst at the same timecarrying out efficient adhesive bonding.

If appropriate, it is conceivable to provide means for activating theglue in order to cause it to react at the moment when the fibres and/orfilaments are deposited onto the substrate. Examples of glues, such aspaste, acrylics or such like glues, may, of course, be considered.Apparatuses and methods of activation may be selected from apparatusesor methods acting by contact, such as calenders, heating blades, etc.,apparatuses or methods working by hot air, such as furnaces, pulsed-airapparatuses, etc., or, if appropriate, apparatuses or methods working byradiant, infrared or such like energy.

FIG. 3 illustrates a preferred embodiment for implementing the methodaccording to the present invention for the purpose of producinglapped/bonded products of the sandwich type.

This figure illustrates a looping disc 11, on which is superposed alooping finger 21, in the extension of which a detaching foot 31 isarranged. A web 0 of suitably oriented fibres is driven by a successionof looping discs 11.

The method for prelooping and confining the material directly on asupport which advances is carried out in the way described in FIGS. 2ato 2 e.

According to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, paste is depositedwith the aid of a wiper 51, for the purpose of fixing the loops,consisting of fibres and/or filaments which have come from theprelooping step and the confining step, to the substrate 100. Theproduct obtained is subsequently subjected to thermal treatment by meansof heating plates 54, in order to obtain gelling of the paste. A secondsubstrate 102, likewise coated with a paste deposited with the aid of awiper 52, is subsequently deposited onto the product consisting of thefirst substrate 100 and of the fixed loops, in order to make a sandwichproduct 60. This sandwich product 60 is subjected once more to thermaltreatment by means of heating plates 56, in order to obtain the gellingof the paste present on the second substrate 102. Finally, a blade 58separates the sandwich product 60 into two by splitting it in order toobtain two products of the pile fabric type 70 and 80.

The present invention makes it possible to produce a series of productswhich it was not possible to obtain, using the methods and/orapparatuses, such as those described in the Applicant's priorapplications.

Three large families of textile products can be produced by means of themethod according to the present invention.

A first large family comprises coverings for floors, walls or motorvehicles. In particular, it is conceivable to produce a product akin tolooped tufted or pile fabric, for which the most common gauges are{fraction (5/64)}″ to {fraction (5/32)}″. In this case, the glues usedwill be mainly pastes, PVC or acrylics, whilst the substrates may bewoven fabrics, non-wovens or else glass mats (in the specific case oftiles).

It is also conceivable to produce low-density uniform-appearance pilefabric products of the vertical needled type, for which the gauges willrange from {fraction (1/16)}″ to {fraction (5/64)}″.

Finally, low-height, but high-density pile fabric products of theflocked type may also be produced for gauges of below {fraction(1/16)}″. In this case, the glues used are preferably thermoplastics.

Advantageously, it can be seen that the apparatus used for carrying outthe method according to the present invention does not comprise anysensitive member, such as needles or transfer elements which executealternating movements. It is therefore even possible to use coarsenatural fibres.

These various products have intrinsic economic usefulness andinteresting functional aspects, such as low sensitivity to moisture,easy maintenance, etc.

The second large family embraces furnishing fabrics, such as seatcovers, wallpapers, etc. In this case, the gauges will be particularlylow, of the order of {fraction (1/32)}″, and the fibres used willpreferably be very fine. It is even conceivable to employ microfibres.

Particularly in order to obtain a suede appearance, a glue is used whichhas the property of expanding until it completely fills the spacebetween the two substrates of a product of the sandwich type, such as aglue of the PVC, acrylic or polyurethane foam type, in order to trap thefibres. The suede appearance is simply obtained by splitting and thensueding.

The third large family relates to industrial textiles which arestructured in sandwich form and which are therefore not split.

Of these textiles, mention may be made of geotextiles which may be usedas a draining structure or as a structure with powders of the bentonitetype being included. Mention may also be made of panel structures, therigidity of which is provided by the sandwich form and in which thespace between the two substrates is filled with a resin or a foam.

In order to illustrate this last family of products more clearly,reference will be made to FIG. 4 which describes the way of producingmore specifically a composite geotextile product, with clay powder ofthe bentonite type being included.

According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4, according tothe present invention a prelooping step is carried out by means oflooping discs 11, between which looping fingers 21 are present and inthe extension of which detaching feet 31 are provided. Introduced intothis apparatus is a web consisting, in the present case, of fibres ofhigh linear density, for example higher than 80 dtex, if appropriatemixed with finer fibres having, for example, a linear density of 17dtex, the purpose of which is to make it easier to card the web. The web0 is driven between the succession of looping discs 11 and fingers 21 inorder to carry out the relooping and confining steps, as described inmore detail in FIG. 2.

A substrate 104 is delivered as far as the point where the fibres aredetached by being pressed onto a heating blade 61. The substratepreferably consists of fibres having a melting point higher than themelting point of the fibres present in the loops which have come fromthe prelooping and confining steps. This heating blade 61 makes itpossible to reach a temperature which is higher than the meltingtemperature of the loops which adhere directly to the substrate 104 bycontact in order to obtain a product 60.

Bentonite powder is subsequently deposited with the aid of aconventional means 63 onto the product 60 which consists of thesubstrate fixed to the loops.

The assembly as a whole subsequently passes onto a vibrating table 65for the purpose of promoting the migration of the bentonite powderwithin the product 60 so as to obtain as uniform a distribution aspossible. This is possible, in particular, due to the high lineardensity of the fibres present in the loops and to their greatresilience, this preventing them from being crushed under the pressureof the powder. Moreover, the height of the loops is selected as afunction of the weight of the powder to be deposited, in order to obtaina space free of powder on the upper part of the product, in such a waythat a second substrate 105 can be deposited onto it by means of asecond heating blade 67.

This results in a sandwich structure, in which the bentonite powder isretained uniformly.

These products are generally used together with geodiaphragms in orderto ensure leaktightness. In fact, if a liquid is present, the bentoniteswells, at the same time absorbing the latter and thereby ensuringself-sealing of the breach.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for producing a textile product from aweb of fibers advancing in a process direction, said method comprisingthe steps of: looping the fibers transversely to the process directionto form prelooped fibers; accumulating said prelooped fibers againststationary detaching elements which at least partially block progress ofthe prelooped fibers in the process direction to form a prelooped web;and depositing without needles the prelooped web onto a support, saidsupport moving in the process direction and comprising means formaintaining the looped configuration of the fibers of the web, whereinsaid steps of accumulating and depositing occur contemporaneously in aspace defined between the detaching elements and the support.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said steps of accumulating and depositingcomprise an initial step of: forming a plug of accumulated preloopedfibers in the space defined between the detaching element and thesupport, said plug increasing in size until said accumulated preloopedfibers contact the support, whereby said accumulated prelooped fibersare engaged by said means for maintaining the looped accumulatedconfiguration of said fibers and advance with said support in theprocess direction with subsequent prelooped fibers accumulating anddepositing behind said plug.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein saidsupport comprises a substrate of the textile product.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein said support is an intermediate element which moves theaccumulated looped fibers in the process direction for fixing to asubstrate of the textile product.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein saidmeans for maintaining the looped accumulated configuration of saidfibers is selected from the group consisting of adhesive, spikes, hooks,heat bonding, or brushes.
 6. The method of claim 3, further comprisingthe step of: coating said substrate with an adhesive having a viscosityselected to promote efficient bonding between the accumulated loopedfibers and the substrate during said step of depositing.
 7. The methodof claim 3, wherein further comprising the step of: applying heat whichproduces adhesion between the accumulated looped fibers and substrate bymelting.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein said heat is produced bymeans selected from the group consisting of a furnace, a calendar, adrum or a heating blade.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprisingthe step of: varying a density of the accumulated looped fibers beingdeposited on said support by varying a speed in the process direction ofthe support relative to a speed of the web in the process direction. 10.The method of claim 3, comprising the step of: depositing a secondsubstrate onto the accumulated looped fibers to produce a sandwichproduct.
 11. The method of claim 10, comprising the step of: cutting theaccumulated looped fibers to obtain two pile fabric products, each ofsaid pile fabric products comprising one said substrate and cutaccumulated looped fibers.
 12. The method of claim 10, comprising thestep of: introducing a powdery material into the accumulated loopedfibers prior to said step of depositing a second substrate.
 13. Themethod of claim 10, comprising the step of: introducing solid elementssuch as pipes or cables into said accumulated looped fibers prior tosaid step of depositing a second substrate.